1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sewing data converting device with a function of converting sewing data used in one sewing means such as an embroidery machine into sewing data used in another sewing means having a data format differing from one of said one sewing means.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has recently been provided a household embroidery machine which forms a desired embroidery pattern on a workpiece cloth based on sewing data indicative of an amount of feed of an embroidery frame (the workpiece cloth) for every stitch, namely, an amount of movement of a sewing needle etc. The sewing data corresponding to a number of embroidery patterns are stored in a memory built in a main body of the embroidery machine or in an external memory card (IC card). The sewing data are supplied into a control device provided in the main body of the embroidery machine. The internal memory or the external memory card stores display data used to display an approximate form of the embroidery pattern or a display on a display of the embroidery machine as well as the sewing data.
One type of embroidery machine by one manufacturer sometimes differs in a hardware arrangement or a data format from embroidery machines by other manufacturers or from other types of embroidery machines by the same manufacturer. Accordingly, the sewing data used in one type of embroidery machine by one manufacturer cannot be used in embroidery machines of the other makers or in other types of embroidery machines by the same manufacturer. To cope with this problem, the prior art has proposed data converting devices for converting the sewing data so that the sewing data is applied to other embroidery machines having data formats differing from one the original sewing data matches. For example, Japanese patent publication No. 6-309112-A (1994) discloses one of such data converting devices.
However, the disclosed data converting device simply converts the sewing data for the movement of the sewing needle and accompanying display data into the sewing data of another data format. As a result, the converted sewing data cannot sufficiently operate the embroidery machine because of differences in the hardware arrangement, performance, etc. More specifically, when a display device of one embroidery machine using one sewing data differs in the shape, size, and the number of picture elements (resolution) from a display device of another embroidery machine using sewing data converted from said one sewing data, a proper displaying operation cannot sometimes be executed on the basis of the converted sewing data by the display device of said another embroidery machine. The difference between a monochrome display and a color display also reduces the displaying performance of the display device of the embroidery machine using the converted sewing data. Furthermore, a proper sewing operation cannot be executed on the basis of the converted sewing data depending upon whether the embroidery machine is provided with an automatic thread cutting mechanism or a needle rocking mechanism. Additionally, the sewing operation cannot properly be executed due to the difference in precision of motor stop position.